Pope Benedict XVI named Hong Kong bishop Joseph Zen a cardinal last month, which PRC apparatchik Liu Bai Nian (a top official of the state-run “Patriotic Church”) yesterday attacked as “an act of hostility to China” by the Vatican. A revered figure on Hong Kong, and increasingly around the world, except in Beijing, Cardinal Zen is well known for his outspoken defense of religious freedom and the democracy movement, hence his despisal by the PRC, which banned Zen from the mainland in 2000 when he defended Pope John Paul II for canonizing of Chinese martyrs. Nian’s based his attack on Zen’s appointment on the Bible: “China’s socialist system comes from God. We should all protect it and obey it. This is what the Bible tells us to do.” Of course, Nian is referring to Paul’s Letter to the Cantonese, 3: 7-11

“And brothers of the East, knowest thou that there is a bigger brother, and after a long march he cometh, whence thy heart shalt taketh a great leap forward, and findeth joy in his laogai amidst thy slavery and starvation and deprivation. For knowest that through thy Chairman thou abideth in the paradise of the workers. To his will conform thyself in full, and protecteth him ever: if thy father smileth, accuseth him; shouldst thy sister be with second child, calleth thou the abortionist; if thou clappeth too little, seeketh reeducation: Do all this, I tell thee, and a hundred flowers shalt bloom. And with thine last breath thou shalt cry out through thine broken bones and pangs of hunger: ‘Mao is love!’”

Amazingly, or maybe not, an AP story on Nian’s blast is headlined “Catholic Leader Objects to New Cardinal.”